Since some hatchlings were near the nest with the eggs, may indicate some parental care (also, with juveniles had different proportions than adults)

May have been herbivorous, and may have also eaten insects

Type species is Mussaurus patagonicus

Mentioned in The Lost World novel by Michael Crichton (the character Richard Levine picks up a small Mussaurus on Isla Sorna early on in the book)

Also in the comic series Jurassic Park: Redemption

Fun Fact:
Gizzards can present a problem for dinosaurs when they eat something sharp.

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Lawler, a grad student at University of California, Berkeley at the time, found the holotype at the West Moenkopi Plateau locality in the Silty Facies

Member of the Kayenta Formation, in Coconino County, Arizona (part of Navajo Nation), in 1971

Described by Edwin Colbert in 1981, based on the fossils Lawler found that were collected in 1977, and a second specimen

James Clark found six more specimens in 1983

Colbert originally thought it was related to Lesothosaurus, a basal ornithischian, and placed Scutellosaurus in the family Fabrosauridae, but the scutes and other features eventually put it in Thyreophora

One of the earliest armored dinosaurs, and the most basal one found so far

Too basal to be considered an ankylosaur or stegosaur

Had over 300 osteoderms on its neck, back, and tail, that formed parallel rows (up to five rows on each side)

Scutes were too small for species recognition, they were embedded like in crocodiles and not really visible

Scutes could have been used for defense

Potential predators at the time were Megapnosaurus and Dilophosaurus

Herbivore, had leaf-shaped cheek teeth

Small, lightly-built

Could grow up to 3.9 ft (1.2 m) long, and weighed 22 lb (10 kg)

Probably bipedal, though may have walked on all fours when eating

Had a long tail, probably for balance

Fun Fact:

Teresa Maryańska (Polish Paleontologist) named two ankylosaurs in 1977: Tarchia AKA the “brainy one” and Saichania AKA the “beautiful one”

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